Does yoga engender fitness in older adults? A critical review

Interest in yoga is growing, especially among older adults. This review critically summarizes the current literature to investigate whether physical fitness and function benefits are engendered through the practice of yoga in older adults. A comprehensive search yielded 507 studies; 10 studies with 544 participants (69.6 ± 6.3 yr, 71% female) were included. Large variability in yoga styles and measurement outcomes make it challenging to interpret results across studies. Studies reported moderate improvements for gait (ES = 0.54, 0.80), balance (ES = 0.25-1.61), upper/lower body flexibility (ES = 0.25, 0.70), lower body strength (ES = 0.51), and weight loss (ES = 0.73, 0.99).Yoga may engender improvements in some components of fitness in older adults. However, more evidence is needed to determine its effectiveness as an alternative exercise to promote fitness in older adults. Further investigation into yoga as an exercise activity for older adults is warranted.     

Proportional hazard regression models for point processes: an analysis of nuclear power plant operations in Europe

The safety and reliability of nuclear power have been hotly debated in the last 30 years. Compared with physical outputs of production, such as electricity, safety and reliability are not easily measurable. This paper considers reliability, defined as the hazard of an unplanned shutdown, and addresses the measurability problem by introducing a generalization of Poisson regression models to analyze the occurrence of unplanned shutdowns interrupting operating spells in European nuclear power plants between 1981 and 1986.     

Intensive gamblers on German-style slot-machines

Results of German-style slot-machine gambling are reported, stemming from seven individual surveys in representatively sampled households (N=7,643). The aim of the inquiry was the reexamination of studies of the number of gamblers in the population together with gambling hours spent per week by active gamblers. The results are largely identical with already known data. Of persons of voting age or older, 10.2% are active gamblers (4.6 million; having gambled at least once within the last 3 months). Of the active gamblers 0.7% are intensive gamblers (5 hours and more per week). These persons number approximately 32,000 in the Federal Republic of Germany, or from 12,000 to 71,000 (95% confidence interval). In addition to the frequency distributions, interactions with socio-demographic characteristics were examined, and an estimate was made for the prevalence of intensive gamblers with severe stress.This article was first published in Germany: Bühringer, G. & Konstanty, R., (1989) Vielsspieler an Geldautomaten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Suchtgefahren 35, 1–13.     

Relative efficiency of OLSE and COTE for seasonal autoregressive disturbances

The efficiency of OLSE relative to GLSE and COTE is studied in the case in which regressors are splines used to explain seasonal influences. It is thereby shown that efficiency measured as the ratio of total or generalized variances is independent of the actual design of splines. Furthermore, for positive autocorrelation, COTE is always worse than OLSE.     

Governmentality by Network in English Primary Healthcare

In England, the quality of clinical work is being regulated in new ways following recent developments in “clinical governance” policy and apparent failures in the previous system of medical self‐regulation. Using multiple case studies, this paper examines how these changes are affecting professional governmentality and discipline in general practice. Formal organizational structures play little role in clinical governance there. Clinical quality is managed largely through semi‐formal networks, relying on medical self‐surveillance. Compliance is achieved largely by discursive appeals to the legitimacy of clinical governance, but local GPs’ leaders also argue that governments might otherwise regulate medical practice more actively. As yet the effects of clinical governance activity on service delivery are slight. Professional self‐regulation is replacing permissive exception management with more collegial, directive methods.     

Communication and social legitimation

Contemporary communication studies have suffered from a lack of fertile social theory. Only recently have students of communication begun to examine seriously the origins and consequences of their work. In the process they have reconsidered the Chicago School. Increasingly the intellectual power of the Chicago School is recognized for its portrayal of communication as a human activity for building, maintaining, and altering consensus. This contrasts with the typical view that sees communication as a means of domination, coercion, or repression. This article examines that conflicting definition of communication, especially in terms of the ways social groups engage in media criticism and enlist public support for their moral concerns. This article concludes that the United States, to avoid fragmentation, needs a public philosophy of communication based on moral consensus.A version of this paper was presented at the Qualitative Studies Division of the Association for Education in Journalism's Annual Convention in Boston, August, 1980.